Between Haze and Fog 1 (Patreon)

Between Haze and Fog 1 - or ‘This game of GoT CK3 sure is turning vicious’ (ASoIaF, GalladonTarth!SI)

Galladon I

Crusader Kings 3 is a fine game that teaches a player that loves RTS the true meaning of Medieval Brutality.

Albeit not the perfect simulator, the sheer amount of intrigue one could muster through some playthroughs is enough to turn the game into a rather vicious version of the Game of Thrones. And yes, that’s also taking into account the mod about the series.

It is quite ironic that I ended up ‘waking’ as one of the characters of this massive chessboard. A seemingly insignificant one at that as… Well, Galladon Tarth was meant to die at 8 due to drowning.

A tragedy that I had averted by limiting my presence around large bodies of water until I was able to properly swim. That was true once I hit 4, and yet I continued to train my capacity to not drown for dumb reasons.

Soon I had an understanding of my situation: I was the heir of House Tarth, yet father was not exactly the ‘pious’ man when it came to giving my poor mother a break. I tried to play the cock-blocker a few times, but one can do it for so long until it becomes problematic. For me.

Getting detention and scolded for ‘limiting my lord-father’s means to be alone with his wife, my mother’ was something that I could tell took a look out of Maester Gabrin.

The man had been quite keen to educate me with things, and had praised me many times, but he was clearly aware I wasn’t doing this out of childish mean-spiritedness. Oh no, everyone could tell my mother was not meant to be the subject of so much ‘affection’ from Selwyn Tarth.

So, when my twin sisters Arianne and Alysanne were born, it was only through my own presence there to harshly order the healers to work accordingly rather than let the two babies die without proper warmth and cleanliness. I may have been too young to push on some reforms without appearing paranoid, but I had convinced Maester Gabrin that maybe, just maybe, having a clean room to keep newborns may be the best idea.

Things went well for a while. Then, at the age of 5, and still trying to keep my father from being so earnest with my mother, the worst happened. Mother died giving birth to Brienne and… and I was angry.

Like, up to that point I had held back from thinking this too analytically. It was clear my father was not a bad person, but he was clearly someone with an addiction. One that was fatal for someone with frail vitality like my new mother.

The woman that had given me so much sweetness in my weakest, tended to my ‘silly’ thoughts and would push me to be a kid. I respected that, but I could see that it was all in vain as the man that smiled and cried between the ups and downs of our family was unwilling to take accountability.

Enough was enough.

It was at the end of 280 AC that I could proudly say I was at ‘Peak Westerosi understanding’ of the Stormland Culture. And I planned the death of my father. Murder is never a ‘first’ option, but I had wasted about two years getting this man to recognize how dangerous this flaw of his was.

And the bastard decided to take in a Mistress. If I remember correctly, he would take one ‘every year’. To a normal reader of the books, this may not mean much, but to the son in question, having to know that his father is such a scumbag?

I had to make a choice which regrets may be immediate if not enabled accordingly. I had an ally in Maester Gabrin. I had ‘upped’ my intelligence around him, telling him that I held back because I didn’t trust my father, and the discovery of his illicit affair was enough to put the Maester on my side.

As much as Tarth was prosperous, the behavior adopted by my father was destructive. And with Robert’s Rebellion around the corner, I couldn’t afford us to get caught off-guard. Tarth actually didn’t take part in the Civil War, the reasons unclear but I could tell it was related to Selwyn’s shitty behavior.

So, a plot was conjured. And I was surprised by how many members of my father's retinue were willing to remove him. He was not a cruel boss, but he was clearly not a good one from the way he was letting things sit without proper resolution. Tarth had been left in economic limbo for a while, with some of the taxes having long been kept the same despite changes in the booming marble mining situation.

Then… the plan was executed.

Father was killed by his mistress.

The woman had been targeted specifically as someone that Selwyn had left to linger around Evenfall Hall without much security around her. Alysanne had caught her trying some of mom’s jewelry and screeched at her, but father had taken the defense of the bitch.

Thus, it was simple for anyone to set the scapegoat to her. Selwyn Tarth died poisoned. The bribed witnesses would attest that the mistress had looked into trying to become the new Lady Tarth despite her low upbringing, having been caught trying things once owned by Selwyn’s late wife. The scandal was amped when rumors of her looking into the market for a ‘love potion’ had yielded a poisonous vial.

She would go on to deny any involvement, even begging me, as I was made the Lord of Tarth, to spare her. But I said a simple bunch of words to her that the guards had been instructed to follow through a specific command.

“To the Oubliette with you.”

The woman, whose name was stripped from her as a form of damnation, was then left to the deepest corner of the dungeon to rot to death. Brutal? She was an ambitious and dangerous lady that had no value to me or anyone in my family.

Despite the many flaws father was known to have, my sisters wept for his passing. I had to feign sadness, my tears reserved to those that could be spared by the kind of mortal judgment that one could feel through sinful actions as extensive as the one as my father’s.

It was the beginning of the 281 AC. I had a year to act before Rhaegar kidnapped Lyanna, Robert started his rebellion, and Tarth was called to make a choice in regard to a Civil War that could be slightly altered in Robert’s favor.

And neutrality was not an option.

—-----d-d-d-d—-----

Maester Gabrin I

Despite what many would think of a Maester such as Gabrin, the man was not the kind of individual that judged one’s wisdom through their age. But through their maturity and actions.

Thus, it was easy to detail why Gabrin found Galladon to be a blessing of the divine. A young child with such a bright mind and an equally gifted set of ideals. Justifying the death of someone else is hardly something a child would go as far as explain, yet he was keen to ‘not make the need to kill relatives a habit’ compared to others who would be less merciful towards a man such as Lord Selwyn.

Yet, with the coming of 281 AC, things changed for Tarth. Ideas that had been presented and tempered through the privacy of debates were soon being implemented.

Additions to agriculture while considering the farmers’ view on the topic, the improvement of the roads connecting Evenhall to New Morne to allow an extensive addition to the movement of marble meant to be traded away, and a reform of taxation that was meant to enable a higher ‘market investment’.

All of that was impressive, yet it paled before the ‘naval expansion’ that Galladon pursued. While that may sound worrisome and war-like, the true target of such expansion was the merchant fleet.

There was indeed an increase of the newly-named ‘Tarth Coastal Guard’, but it wasn’t as expanded as the trading ships that were to broaden the trade between Tarth and Storm’s End.

Finally, a fair expansion of the military in terms of defense. While Tarth was not valuable enough to warrant a potential violation of neutrality, it was true that it stood at the doors of Storm’s End, and as it was known to many Stormlanders that Lord Robert Baratheon had started to grow weary of the interest Prince Rhaegar had for one Lady Lyanna Stark… it was only fair to worry about a potential incursion of the Royal Fleet in case of war.

The project was funded under the guise of ‘preventing piracy’. Two three-floored forts were built through the employment of a large number of commonfolks and stonemasons that were quick to see the creation of formidable fortifications, but it was the Scorpion Ballistas that rendered those truly fearsome against a naval incursion. Three per each fort, and the bolt had been worked by the local blacksmith to be set on fire to increase the inflicted damage.

Yet, as limited as this all sounded, to Gabrin it was all slowly making sense. This was not precaution, this was preparation. The young Lord had not ‘dreamed’ of war, he knew one was just around the corner.

And as the events that saw the killing of Lord Rickard Stark and his Heir Brandon, the kidnapping of Lyanna Stark and the rejection of accountability from King Aerys II, Westeros was plunged into a Civil War.

One that, Gabrin knew already, was going to offer Tarth the chance to broaden its potential.

—-----d-d-d-d—-------

AN

Emergency military reforms aside, the main focus of Galladon through the war will be the economy so that the island can sustain a potential blockade and even leave the civil war with a stronger position within the Royal Court.

Also, the Internal map of Tarth I will be using. The maker is r/chrkrose.